Patrick Thomas

Australian conductor Patrick Alan Thomas was born in Brisbane on 1 June 1932. At the age of twelve, after attending a Eugene Ormandy concert, he decided to become a conductor.

In 1963 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's acting federal director of music, Joseph Post, gave Thomas an audition, and, within two years, Thomas was director of the ABC's Adelaide Singers. He was conductor of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra during 1968.

From 1973 until 1977 he was the Queensland Symphony Orchestra's first and only homegrown chief conductor.

He conducted many Australian orchestras, and worked internationally as a guest conductor.

A strong advocate for new music and Australian talent, he became a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1978, and a member of the Order of Australia in 2014.

Patrick Thomas died on 1 August 2017, aged eighty-five.